


Hotaru and Homework: Haruka’s Dilemma

by YuriNoShoujo



Series: They Did WHAT?! [3]
Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: Baby!Hotaru, Cuddles, F/F, Fluffy, Happy Outers Family, Homework
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-03-29 22:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13936734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YuriNoShoujo/pseuds/YuriNoShoujo
Summary: Why Haruka, Homework and Hotaru don’t mix.





	1. Haruka’s Dilemma

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya something cute about procrastination on homework whilst the author procrastinates on homework...heh

_Question 3. According to the MSDS and pages 45, 65 and 155-158 of the textbook please detail the exact procedure in the event of a choloform spill. Include all possible secondary hazards and make an assessment_...

 

Haruka’s eyes glazed over as her brain slowly shut down out of sheer boredom. Her train of thought shuddered to a stop after teetering towards an idea about as likely as her ever finding a male attractive: doing Modern Japanese first. Chemistry was meant to be fun, at least the borderline pyrotechnicians of the Chemistry Club at Mugen made it seem so. But no, instead she had to trawl through a safety manual larger than the one for her race car and copy word-for-word scientific mumbo-jumbo. Half of the words were quite clearly some international standard and were thus transferred from English or Latin...meaning in Japanese they were complete gibberish. What kind of idiot would write a question like this? How did Setsuna do this day in day out? 

 

She moved back to the incredible tome and flipped between the marked pages managing to actually comprehend maybe one word? Two? The entire heading of  page 396? The fact that 396 isn’t the page she is meant to be on?

 

Ugh. She needed a break. But she promised Michiru she’d at least do at least five “homework questions” first. Well, they really weren’t “homework” as such as extra work because home schooling meant that all work was done at home. She’d only started the program three weeks ago, instead of transferring to the offered school after Mugen blew up. Her and Michiru both decided it would be better, so they could be there for their daughter.

 

Their daughter. Their _daughter_ _._  A soft smile spread over Haruka’s features. To think that only a month ago her life was so different, _she_  was so different, so harsh and cold and now, well, she had mellowed out into being a parent. Her responsibilities had morphed from the weight of the world to keeping a little, tiny, cute, adorable human safe, fed, clean and happy. Though, some days, it was kind of odd that the domestic adult tasks required to raise Hotaru had actually restored some of her youth, but Michiru laughed more than ever now. Life was good. 

 

Thinking of Michiru, Haruka turned to face her study partner (well, everything partner), only to see her packing up.

 

”You’re done already?” She asked,  incredulous. Michiru definitely was the more academically driven of the two, although not by much. No, she was just on her break. Just make sure. “All twenty questions?”

 

”Yes.” A blunt answer in reply.

 

”Seriously?” How did she end up eighteen questions ahead?

 

”Yes, I have been done for a couple of minutes now.” 

 

”You coulda tapped me on the shoulder or something...” Haruka said, embarrassed. How long had she spaced out? Michiru lightly bopped her on the nose. 

 

“And why, when I have such an irresistible sight before me?” She laughed. “I’ll get dinner ready. We’re having curry over natto.”

 

Haruka was unable to completely suppress her disgust. She met her lover’s eyes. She had that look again. That look that meant Haruka had fallen for it...again. 

 

“Just kidding! I’ll leave you to finish studying.” And with a peck of the lips and a flourish she left Haruka alone. All alone with the most boring work in existence. 

 

With a grunt she attempted to concentrate once more. Copying word after word after diagram after word after word after word. A lull settled over her as she completed the mindless task.

 

Well, until a cry came through the baby monitor. Then she was up in a flash and straight to the nursery homework (or whatever it was) the last thing on her mind. 

 

There she was. Hotaru was lying in her crib, bawling her eyes out. As quickly as she could she got her daughter up and out of the crib, placing her on her chest.

 

“Hello, Hime-chan”, she sang holding her child close to her as the cries stopped. “You hungry? Need a change...thank god you don’t. You just woke up and wanted us, didncha? You just wan play with Papa?” Taking her smile as an affirmative answer Haruka returned to the lounge, rocking Hotaru and whispering sweet nothings into her ear. Hotaru just giggled and cooed in response, delight clear on her face. It was one of the best things Haruka had ever seen. And with it came the realisation that _she_ was the reason for her baby’s smile and laugh. It was a strange feeling, yet a warm and proud feeling: love.

 

The giggles didn’t stop once they reached the lounge, if anything, they increased. As Hotaru could now sit up and crawl (and all by herself!) Haruka tried to teach her catch. It turned out to be closer to roll-the-ball-to-the-baby-then-collect-it-after-she-threw-it-in-the-wrong-direction but Haruka didn’t care one bit. She’d move up to real ball sports when Hotaru was a little older. 

 

When Hotaru seemed bored with the ball, the racer bought out what she thought so far was the best toy. Yes, it was a race car. Yes, they had turning wheels and was a ride on. Yes, they may not have just been for Haruka herself as much as Hotaru but Hotaru totally liked it! And Odango got her a Bunny Rabbit toy!

 

So off they went, cruising through the city (around the lounge), took a wrong turn through the tunnel (accidentally went under the table in the dining room), expressed road rage at pedestrians (Hotaru shrieking in delight at a passing cat) and just generally wore each other out.

 

They were cuddling on the couch when Setsuna came home, immediately striding off for a shower, muttering something about biohazard labs. It was around then that Michiru emerged from the kitchen to say dinner was ready, well, after Setsuna was appropriately decontaminated. She placed Hotaru in the high chair and fastened a bib around her. 

 

“So,” she began. “You finished that homework yet?”

 

Homework?

 

What homework? The only work Haruka was doing of that sort was...

 

Oh.

 

The Chemistry Homework.

 

She knew it was clear on her face that she hadn’t done it. Oops. Michiru just left her with an exasperated sigh and her promising she’d get it finished after she’d eaten. Playtime had worn her out.

 

After dinner she kept good on her word. Her study buddy had been replaced by an infant using her leg as a pillow. Not that she complained. Now Question 11. _What are the rules dictating the rounding of significant figures according to the Internati_...

Her eyes began to glaze over again. Why did she have to waste brain cells on this again? It was all just common sense and rounding! She stroked Hotaru’s hair as she detailed out sentences of nothingness. After a while, she was just content to look a the baby in her lap (hey, she needed a brain break). 

 

Hotaru had seemed to have only just discovered her feet and toes, from the way she stared at the ends of her legs, grabbing one foot and deciding to chew on it. Haruka just held the other in her hand, rubbing circles on the sole. She heard a noise and looked up just in time to see a camera flash. Uh oh. Caught.

 

“Um. Sorry? Michiru?”

 

”You need to finish that, it’s due tomorrow.”

 

”I know.”

 

”So that means no more distractions. I do apologise though, as Hotaru needs her bath, so you’ll have to pass her over.”

 

She did, recultantly.

 

Back to work, this time with an ultimatum. No holding the baby until after you have finished all homework or improve you work ethic. She soothed the annoyance with the knowledge that Michiru just had her in the bath now, and you can’t do homework in the bath. Question 13, Question 14 done. 

 

By 7:30 Hotaru was restless and cranky. Bedtime. Haruka was halfway through Question 18. She offered to take her up and read her a bedtime story (she liked those) but no, Michiru said she had three questions to go. 

 

Instead she heard beautiful violin music through the walls of the house. It was like a nursery rhyme, though none she had ever heard. It was low and sweet and pitch perfect.

Lovely.

 

~~~~<<<~<~<~<~<~~~~~~

 

The fact that Hotaru had managed to fall asleep before eight meant that the little project she had had had paid off. Her little princess’ face was calm off in dreamland, no nightmare graced her thoughts. She kissed her on the forehead and left the nursery, making a mental note for Haruka to drive her to the studio tomorrow so she could record Hotaru’s Lullaby, now that she had found a tune that worked on the night owl. The others would need it. 

 

She sighed. This was simultaneously the easiest yet hardest tune she had ever written. The chord pattern and melody were practically beginner and it was classical music, the music that sends most people to sleep anyway. But yet as it was for _her_ daughter, she had trawled through article after article on music and sleep and babies so she could calm her child down of a nighttime. 

 

Reaching the lounge, she realised she may have done too well. Placing down her violin she touched her sleeping lover’s face. She had had three hours of sleep last night, poor thing, Setsuna had said. No wonder she couldn’t get this work done. 

 

Unconsciously Haruka leaned into the touch and from there she attempted to wake her up so she didn’t rise up stiff tomorrow from sleeping on a coffee table. There was a pen still twined in her fingers over illegible kanji, working til unconsciousness overtook her, just like Michiru on the nights she got inspired and would just paint until dawn. 

 

She made it to the end of question nineteen. A valiant effort.

 

Oops... 

 

 

 


	2. OMAKE: Setsuna’s Turn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Setsuna’s turn!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya! I’m baaaaack! 
> 
> Back in this looney uni!
> 
> Now legit question:  
> Should I do another Outers Family one or try to figure out how the hell I paired Rei with Michiru’s ex next?

Setsuna Meioh hated 20th Century computers. What would be an instantaneous data transfer of 900MB in Crystal Tokyo, was instead taking four and a half hours. Her computer, top-of-the-range as it might be had to focus entirely on that one task lest it crash. Or wipe itself. It had done that so many times that she was one step away from unleashing Dead Scream on that thing. 

So instead, she was peer-reviewing. Her lecturers compared the task to cleaning toilets: necessary but downright ghastly, unless you were one of the odd few whom enjoyed it. And Setsuna was usually one of the odd few. When it was an actual scientific article and not just a bunch of first year projects. Takeuchi-Sensei owed her big time. 

Her task was to mimic the usual style of peer reviewing so that the new batch of Chemistry 111 students could get a taste of ‘real’ scientific writing. There were a few excellent ones and most passable but some were just bad. The kindest thought she had for those was that they had a very long way to go before they were up to that level. Others she just put to the side after reading the first page to finish with a glass of wine later tonight. Sensei owed her double for those. 

A howl stopped her halfway through one that she was a hairs breadth from placing on the liquor pile. Hotaru had woken to save the day. Her tolerance for stupidity and plagiarism was slowly dropping into the negatives. 

She picked her baby up, holding her close and shushing her. The raven haired beauty calmed immediately and went back to sleep. Setsuna placed her in the bassinet. Must’ve been a nightmare. Could babies get nightmares? She have to ask the pediactrics department for some articles on the subject. Oh well, she had to do that when her computer wasn’t otherwise occupied. Speaking of, she left the room to check if there had been any progress with the download since she left an hour ago...

Only to have to walk straight back into the study as Hotaru started crying again. She picked her up again, held her until she fell asleep and put her down again. This time tucking in her favourite toy: a pink rabbit. Her daughter’s tiny fingers curled around its ear as Setsuna kissed her forehead. She took three steps into the hall...

And Hotaru began to cry again. She picked her back up and began to think of a solution. Hotaru has always begun to cry the second she left her. Rocking the baby back and forth it came to her. 

Michiru had bought it last week, Setsuna had forgotten the exact name of it but it was a sort of pouch-thing that you could keep your baby close to your chest with, leaving your arms free. She fished that out of the cupboard, checked and fastened Hotaru in. Her little princess seemed to like this idea as she felt straight to sleep. She checked the download, 550MB to go and thought that she was now in a good enough mood to go back to marking. 

Thankfully, after placing the last student she started to mark away from her, she came across a better one. She found herself occasionally asking Hotaru for an opinion, who cooed in response. Unfortunately, after three great ones there was another terrible report. And it was the last meaning she’d have to actually deal with the pile of seven papers next to her sober. She sighed and began to mark. The baby strapped to her chest had other ideas though and began to get antsy, squirming about and making it impossible to focus. 

Setsuna stood up, took Hotaru out of the harness and paced around, trying to calm her once again. She left the study to get a drink. Hotaru was smacking her lips, a sign she was hungry. Setsuna looked over at the high chair, they’d started moving onto solids two weeks ago, but only for one or two meals a day. Formula it is. She made up the bottle. Hotaru drank greedily, her hatred of milk nonexistent in this new body. Setsuna laughed at the thought, then grew pensive as the memories of just over a month ago moved to the forefront of her mind. She was so cold to others back then, so lonely. Haruka and Michiru had trusted no one but each other. The little warm body snuggled closer in her arms, perhaps sensing her discomfort. Her heart warmed at the thought. 

After feeding Hotaru, she really did not feel like marking any more so she laid on the couch, Hotaru on her stomach and started to watch TV. It was some kooky game show, which mesmerised Hotaru with its bright colours and spinning wheels. After it finished Setsuna really wanted to go outside, so she took a small walk to the beach, let Hotaru crawl in the sand and immediately regretted that decision when her little troublemaker decided it was food, as well as something to toss around. Setsuna bore the brunt of the onslaught but the both needed a bath when they got home. 

After bath time Hotaru began to calm down and begun to sleep in Setsuna’s arms. She walked up to the nursery and just sat in the rocking chair, whispering sweet nothings until Haruka and Michiru waltzed through the door. 

The second Haruka saw her she had this wicked grin on her face. She glanced over at Michiru.

“See, it’s not just me that prefers Hotaru over homework!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thankyou so much to for reading this. Like to see you guys actually read and like my stuff? It’s mind blowing. It helps me on my worse days. Seriously. I love you guys. 
> 
> YALL ARE AWESOME!

**Author's Note:**

> Thankyou for reading!


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